Calls for bold action to tackle smoking

The stark new figures were part of a major Parliamentary report calling for bold national action to tackle smoking.

The All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Smoking and Health is calling on the Government to include a set of tough new measures in its forthcoming Tobacco Control Plan, essential if England is to be smokefree by 2030.

The report comes after the Chief Medical Officer Professor Chris Whitty recently warned that more people are likely to die from smoking this year than Covid-19.

The report is calling for funding for measures to reduce smoking and support people to quit, targeted investment to tackle high smoking rates in communities where smoking does most damage, and tough new regulations to protect children from becoming smokers.

The APPG report is backed by Fresh.

Ailsa Rutter OBE, Director of Fresh and Balance, said: “Twenty years ago, I lost my own father at the age of 61 to an entirely preventable smoking related illness.

"Like so many millions he had got hooked onto smoking when he was still a child and never imagined how devastating this would ultimately be.

"Every day I remember him, and it spurs me on to keep pushing for action that can prevent this happening to other families across the region.

“The last year has put into sharp focus the importance of health, and the report from the APPG on Smoking provides good evidence for what the government must do to ‘make smoking obsolete’ as they said was their ambition back in July 2019.”